


A Window of Problems

by Songbird13



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Aviophobia, Fluff, Gen, Panic Attacks, Phobias, Sorry Not Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-17
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 16:26:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12751926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Songbird13/pseuds/Songbird13
Summary: Jim was still reeling from the fact that he had been given the USS Enterprise as her Captain. One of the very first things that he did once gaining the news was to ask Bones if he would be his Chief Medical Officer. Bones had grumbled and grouched (at this point, Jim would be worried if he didn’t), but he accepted, stating that “someone has to keep your ass alive.”Jim works to help Bones out when there's a problem with his quarters, like the brilliant friend that he is. During this time period, Jim learns how much Bones means to him and what it means to be a best friend to someone.





	A Window of Problems

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Star Trek or any of it's characters (unfortunately). 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy :)
> 
> Sorry about any British spelling.

Jim was still reeling from the fact that he had been given the USS Enterprise as her Captain.

 

One of the very first things that he did once gaining the news was to ask Bones if he would be his Chief Medical Officer. Bones had grumbled and grouched (at this point, Jim would be worried if he didn’t), but he accepted, stating that “someone has to keep your ass alive.”

 

Jim had chuckled and left his best friend to go and request a few more people to join his crew. After all, Enterprise is the best ship of the fleet (what’s left of it, he thinks solemnly), needs the best crew.

 

He then asked Sulu, Checkov and Scotty if they would join him, all of whom had given resounding _yesses_ in reply, that had warmed his heart considerably. He had been ready to grovel on his knees for each person to join the ship and he could understand if any of them didn’t want to be there. After all, he did have the ability to set people on edge and drive everyone away.

 

It was this knowledge that made him genuinely surprised when he received messages from Spock, Uhura and Hendorff (Cupcake, his mind supplied) to request to be on the Enterprise. These requests had touched him, as all three of these people had reasons to disregard any requests that he had made. Let’s be honest, he had irritated Uhura from the very first second; the same with Cupcake, mainly for the nickname that the man was _definitely_ not getting rid of anytime soon. Then, there was Spock. Jim had disrespected the man, told him he didn’t love his mother, when he had just lost her and most of his planet. He was a complete dick to Spock and still, the Vulcan had requested to be on his ship as his First Officer.

 

For once, he was speechless (which hardly ever happened, might he add), although not too long. Especially not, as he had opened his PADD messages when in Bones’ presence and the whole speechless thing had made the doctor antsy enough to make him pull out his tricorder and begin scanning his new Captain.

 

“Bones,” he whined, when he heard the familiar whirring of the machine that seemed to be an extension of his best friend at times. He smirked. “I could just order you to stop. I _am_ your Captain now.”

 

Bones looked up from the display with an eyebrow raise and scowl that seemed to question how the hell Jim had survived this long in life _and_ be classed as a genius, when he was in fact just an idiot. “You do realise that I can override you. _I’m_ your Chief Medical Officer, in case you forgot Jim. That means that I have a medical override _and_ the power the sedate your ass if necessary.”

 

Jim paused for a moment as a string of expletives ran through his mind. He had forgotten about that, but Bones didn’t need to know that. A quick look at the Georgian doctor, told him that Bones already knew anyway, if the smirk was anything to go by.

 

Apparently, Jim passed the examination, because Bones was now putting the tricorder away and looking at his friend. “You ready for this?”

 

“To be in space? To explore new worlds? To be the best ship in the fleet?” He smiled brightly at Bones. “Maybe I ought to be asking you that.”

 

Bones’ face turned a few shades paler before he grumbled and walked away from Jim, mumbling something about finding coffee and avoiding adrenaline-junkie Captains. Jim just smiled, and he felt as if he was smiling all through the following days as the ship was prepped and everyone got ready for leaving the Earth once more.

 

He knew how much responsibility sat on his shoulders, but he couldn’t help but be pumped, as the launch date came ever-closer.

 

When they got there, all their things had been placed into their assigned quarters before them, so that they only had to enter the ship with a small bag each that was quickly dumped in their rooms before they all jumped into briefings and preparing for their flight in seven standard hours.

 

Jim was filled with nervous energy throughout the launch and the remainder of his shift. When Beta shift began, someone came along and relieved him from his position. Jim was almost sad to leave the comfortable chair, but he also a ton of paperwork that he now needed to do. A thought popped into his head, that made paperwork a little better, he would do it with Bones. Surely, as CMO, Bones would have tons of paperwork as well, which made him feel less terrible.

 

Jim walked into the turbolift and requested to go to Sickbay. It was a little ironic, as this was probably going to be one of the only times that Jim voluntarily went down to Sickbay without being forced to by Bones.

 

When the doors slid open, he immediately saw Bones taking charge of the next shift, PADD in his hands and a smallish scowl on his face. _Hmm,_ Bones actually looked quite relaxed, nowhere near as stressed as Jim had expected. Maybe the day had been quite therapeutic for Bones. The thought made Jim smile, but it also wasn’t too surprising to him.

 

It didn’t take too long to gain Bones’ attention and drag him away from the antiseptic smelling Sickbay. The place just seemed to give him the heebie-jeebies-it’s too sterile and most medical staff terrified him-well apart from Bones. How odd that the man that terrified everyone else, was fine for him. Also, he couldn’t escape the irony that he hates doctors and his best friend is a doctor, but he’d analyse that later…maybe…if he can be bothered.

 

After grabbing some food in the mess hall and having to deal with a standard grouch from Bones about how tasteless replicated food and coffee are, they go to Jim’s quarters to do the pile of paperwork that’s already started growing, despite not having been on the ship for even 24 hours yet.  

 

When they entered, Jim noticed Bones go stiff and his breathing rate increased considerably, making it seem loud, even to Jim. He had paused almost mid step in the doorway and it took Jim paused for a moment to work out what the hell had happened.

 

Looking from Bones’ line of sight to the room in front of him, the answer hit him like a shuttle. He was such an idiot. The floor to ceiling window that travelled across one wall of the quarters showed a perfect view of the stars outside. Personally, he felt that the view made him relaxed, but he could imagine that ‘relaxed’ is the last word that an aviophobe would use to define the view ahead of him.

 

Jim took a moment to let his instincts rule before he came up with a solution. “Come on Bones,” he said in a quiet voice that he wasn’t sure his best friend heard.

 

Jim took a gentle hold of Bones’ arm and tugged lightly until Bones’ feet followed him out of the room. Jim pulled Bones along and soon, they were in the turbolift. They went to rec room 4, as Jim had checked earlier and rec room 4 and 6 were the only ones without windows in them. When they got in, they found the room devoid of chairs. Instead, there were tons of comfy beanbags to sit on. Jim mentally shrugged and led Bones to one of the huge beanbags on the floor and pushed him down gently.

 

Jim watched as the man in front of him collapsed onto the squidgy surface, eyes slightly hazy and long legs sprawled out in front of him. Jim walked over to one of the replicators on the wall surface and procured a glass of water, before taking it over to his best friend.

 

By this time, Bones seemed to have gained a semblance of control and was now sat with his PADD on the floor and his head in his hands. When Jim tapped his shoulder, Bones jumped, but looked up and took the water with a thankful grunt.

 

He then proceeded to down most of the water before placing it on the floor next to him. “Sorry Jim. Thanks,” he mumbled.

 

“Hey don’t worry Bones.”

 

They sat in silence for a moment more and Jim pulled over another oversized beanbag to where Bones was sat to join him. He watched for a moment and saw Bones’ breathing rate slow down considerably and the shaking in his steady hands began to reduce as the minutes ticked past gradually.

 

There were a few mumbles from Bones that sounded particularly self-deprecating. Jim hated watching Bones look like this, but he hated it more when the man sat up straight, and the mask fell over his face as the doors hissed open to let people in. Jim felt privileged that Bones let him see the parts of him no-one else saw, but he was still saddened by the fact that Bones had apparently learned how to hide his emotions so well, even though he was probably still panicky.

 

Moments later and Bones was picking up his PADD and doing his paperwork. Jim sighed and picked up his own PADD to do paperwork as well, all while keeping an eye on Bones, who seemed to relax in increments.

 

They were about half-way through their extensive paperwork, when a thought occurred to Jim. One that set ice in his veins. He brought up the blueprint of the decks of the Enterprise that he had on his PADD and looked through the deck that his quarters resided on. Sure enough, two doors down from his own quarters were the CMO quarters. A quick click later and his fears were confirmed. The wall of windows travelled all the way down the length of those quarters. That meant that Bones’ quarters had the same type of windows as his own did.

 

Only now that the list was reeling through his mind did Jim realise just how many swear words he knew in a variety of languages. The amount of them startled him for a second.

 

He looked up at Bones, who was now looking much more relaxed, although he wouldn’t be if he found out that he had windows in his quarters. Jim took a second to wonder if he was cursed, because something _always_ went wrong, before sending a quick message to Scotty to work out the logistics of the plan that he had in his mind.

 

He knew that the windows could be overridden to make them look opaque, but he wasn’t sure if it would make all the windows along that wall opaque, or just those ones.

 

Scotty messaged back in record time to notify him that his concerns were justified. All the windows would turn opaque on that wall, not just in Bones’ quarters. The last thing that he needed was another officer turning off the override before Bones woke up and him waking to a panic attack.

 

He sends Scotty another message asking him to override all the windows and to get on working out how to make just one set of windows opaque, while he created a note for all the officers (apart from Bones) to not depolarise the windows until further notice. Thankfully, all the officers sent him messages to confirm his order.

 

Jim took a nice deep breath and relaxed slightly, back into his paperwork.

 

The rest of the night was filled with seemingly never-ending paperwork, easy chatting and by the end, trying not to yawn. However, that didn’t last too long, as Bones caught him stifling his yawns and ordered him to bed, with the distinct threat that he would be sedated if he didn’t get to bed soon.

 

Jim watched as Bones hesitated before entering his room, but Jim felt good, when he entered his own room and the windows were a light grey opaque colour. He missed the stars, but Bones’ sanity was worth it. After all, Bones is responsible for the health of the whole crew. Making him have panic attacks all night, is never a good thing to make Bones a good doctor tomorrow.

 

So, that night, Jim got changed out of his uniform and after setting his alarms for tomorrow, he got into bed and it wasn’t long before he was asleep.

 

He must have exhausted himself, because at 5 am, he woke up, after having no dreams and no broken sleep. He stretched the tension from his shoulders, immediately getting changed and moving to the gym to go for his morning run. He might be a morning person anyway (much to Bones’ chagrin, especially at the academy), but the run helped to wake him up properly.

 

Five miles seemed to fly past and soon, Jim was moving back to his quarters. He greeted all the people that he met, who were still on Gamma shift and as soon as he got back, he got out of his clothes again and went for a sonic shower. It didn’t take long for the shower to be finished and after clearing up the stubble that had begun to form on his face and brushing his teeth, he was walking out into his quarters with a towel covering his midriff.

 

He stretched again and grabbed a uniform. The golden shirt was still catching him unawares, but he was beginning to accept that he was on the Command crew of the Enterprise. Actually, he was _in command_ of the Enterprise.

 

With a smile, he got changed. His mind was still waking up as he looked out at the stars ahead of him. His heart seemingly skipped a beat. _Stars?_ _Shit_. The windows were no longer polarised, which meant…

 

More expletives later and Jim was racing out of his quarters without his shoes and his hair a mess He punched in his command override into Bones’ quarters when he got there, to find the room…empty.

 

He felt his breath catch in his throat. He checked all over Bones’ quarters to find the man, even in his bathroom, to find the whole room empty.

 

The sheet was missing from the unmade bed, which was weird, because Bones is definitely a man who can’t leave his room without making his bed. Even in an emergency, he haphazardly makes his bed on instinct.

 

He takes a deep breath and his tactical training kicked in. _How is the best way to find Bones?_ The answer is so simple that he almost feels embarrassed. He is after all a genius and so, that took far too long. The answer: simple, ask the computer.

 

The bio-settings on the ship had been set to be able to identify the whereabouts of each crew member. “Computer, locate Dr McCoy.”

 

“Dr Leonard McCoy is in Recreational Room number 4,” the reproachful electronic female voice answered in an even and calm tone.

 

Jim let the breath he was holding in be released, as he went back to his quarters, put on his boots, tamed his hair quickly and went to find his CMO.

 

Upon entering rec room 4, the first thing that Jim saw was a mound of beanbags, all collected together in a huge heap. He almost considered leaving the room, but decided not to, as he saw the slightest sliver of brown that contrasted with the bright blue beanbag that it was against.

 

As he stepped closer, he saw Bones lying in the middle of the heap, curled up in a tight ball. His breathing was slow, deep and controlled, telling Jim that his friend was still asleep. This knowledge made him a little sad that he had to wake him up.

 

Jim moved around the mound of beanbags, as Bones was lying with his back towards Jim and he had learned early in the academy, if waking Bones, you do it face to face. _Once_ Jim had made that mistake. He had tried to wake up Bones by shaking his back, only to have the man turn stupidly quickly and follow the hand up to punch his jaw hard enough to knock him onto his ass. Bones had sorted Jim out as an apology, but Jim learned to never do that again. The man could sock a punch, even half-asleep. He wasn’t quite sure why he didn’t attack when he was face to face, but he learned quickly.

 

Jim’s heartstrings tugged as he saw Bones’ face, slightly covered by his arms, but visible enough to allow Jim to see tear tracks down the man’s face. He must have cried himself to sleep, probably in the middle of a panic attack from waking up to the sight of the open, dark, cold space through the window.

 

“Sorry Bones,” Jim whispered under his breath as he proceeded to lean forward and shake Bones awake.

 

Bones’ instincts as both a doctor and a father made him a stupidly light sleeper and so, it didn’t take much of a nudge before Bones was blearily opening his eyes to look at Jim. “Wha’s wrong?” he mumbled, voice thick with sleep and hoarse, probably from crying.

 

“Shift’s staring soon Bones. Sorry.”

 

A degree of haziness shifted from Bones’ eyes, leaving them a bit clearer. He would need coffee or adrenaline before they were completely clear, but it was a start. Bones sat up and Jim marvelled at just how many cowlicks the man woke up with in the morning.

 

“Don’t worry Jim. Not your fault.”

 

“But…”

 

“Jim. Stop, please.” Bones interrupted. “Not your fault,” he claimed stubbornly, as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and yawned, as if he was a child.

 

It took Bones a few more minutes of yawning and stretching before he was getting up from the beanbag pile that he had created. He shook himself off and stretched again.

 

It was then that Bones seemed to look down at himself and realise that he was still in his blue and black chequered pyjamas. The look that he gave Jim, he could have laughed, but Jim realised that actually, most of that look was fear. Fear of going back into his room.

 

“Come with me,” Jim said quietly, leading the way through the corridors. Bones seemed to get more and more antsy when he realised that they were going back to his quarters. “Please,” he whispered in a very low voice.

 

“Hey,” Jim looked at Bones and gave a small smile. “I wouldn’t be that mean Bones. Stay here.” Jim led Bones to the side of the corridor, so that his back would be against the wall between the doors to enter the quarters. That way, Bones wouldn’t have to see the windows.

 

One thing that Jim was eternally grateful for, is that Bones is a creature of habit. He kept his clothes all in the same kinds of areas. In the wardrobe, there were the uniforms, hanging pressed and ready. In the second drawer down in the cabinet, were Bones’ underwear, that Jim snagged a pair of, as well as a uniform. He then picked up the uniform from the wardrobe and Bones’ washbag from the bathroom before taking them out to the hallway. He handed them over to Bones, who looked eternally grateful, as his shoulders slumped in ease.

 

As Bones went to Sickbay to use the shower in the on-call room and get dressed, Jim went to the mess to get them both breakfast-toast and raspberry jam with an apple for himself and toast and orange marmalade with a sliced peach for Bones. He grabbed two mugs of coffee as well (one black with no sugar for Bones and one white with two sugars for himself). He then put them on a tray to make it easier to take down to Sickbay.  He took them both down to the Sickbay, so that they could eat before their shift.

 

When he got there, Bones was just coming out of the on-call room, clean and dressed, with a bundle of clothes in his arms, all neatly folded. Bones looked much more awake and calmer now and Jim let a breath of relief fall from his lips as they both moved into Bones’ office to eat their breakfast.

 

Jim began to wolf down his toast, enjoying the taste of it, but after a moment, he realised that Bones was only picking at his toast. Bones looked up at Jim almost guiltily. “I’m sorry Jim.”

 

Jim swallowed quickly around the chunk of toast that he had in his mouth, having to swig down some of his coffee to help it on its way down. “Why?” he asked when he was finally able to.

 

Bones’ face took on a look that Jim recognised as self-deprecation, “because I’m a damn scaredy-cat,” he replied, his accent thickening slightly. “Why do you want me here, when I can’t even look out any of the bloody windows?” he asked in a voice that was barely stronger than a whisper. These small comments always made Jim’s heart clench uncomfortably, because he knew that Bones was stronger than this.

 

“Because I trust you Bones. You’re the best man for the job.” Jim gave Bones a smile. “Besides, who else is going to keep me and this crew safe and out of trouble, yet still patch all of us up if we get stuck?” Jim smiled to himself, because he was able to use Bones’ own words to help his case.

 

“I’m still sorry kid,” he replied, but a small smile was turning up the corners of his lips as he took a bit from his toast and continued to eat the rest with more vigour and motivation than before.

 

With the shift changeover coming closer, both men finished their food much faster than they usually would. Bones tipped the coffee back and gulped down the hot liquid and placed the cup on the tray. He began to clear up their breakfast as Jim was still drinking his own sweet, yet bitter coffee.

 

Bones checked the chronometer on the wall and looked at Jim. “You might want to start to get ready for your shift Jim. It wouldn’t be good for the Captain to be late, on only the second day of being in command of the ship,” he claimed with a small smirk as he grabbed a PADD from his desk and powered it up.

 

Jim looked at the chronometer and realised that Bones was right. He had about 15 minutes before his shift started, but he wanted to get there slightly early. “Cool, thanks Bones.” Bones gave a small grunt in recognition that Jim had said something as he was flicking through pages on the PADD. Jim assumed that he was looking at the Sickbay reports from the night before. Jim smirked at Bones, long used to this kind of behaviour from his best friend.

 

Jim gave Bones a friendly slap on the shoulder, gaining him a look and a brief smile from Bones, before he grabbed the tray from the desk and picked it up. He was toying with the idea of taking Bones’ clothes back to his quarters, but he feared that he didn’t have enough hands for that.

 

Bones must have caught him looking, because he piped up, just as soon as the thought had popped into his head. “Don’t worry about them. They’re fine where they are Jim. You’ve already done enough.” Jeez, sometimes the man was like a mind reader. When they had first started living together in the dorms at the Academy, it had creeped Jim out how Bones always seemed to know what he was thinking. Now, almost 4 years later, Jim was long used to it. In fact, he now found it hilarious to watch other people’s reactions when Bones used that scary good ability to observe to guess what people were thinking. He was far too good at it and Jim was almost awed by how well Bones took in body language to read so many people so easily.

 

After a promise to see each other after their respective shifts, Jim was moving towards the Bridge, stopping by the mess first to drop off the tray.

 

After getting to the Bridge, he gained the report form the shift before his and the reports that had been sent to his PADD. He started by checking over the reports from each area of the ship to make sure that there hadn’t been any issues since he left his position. When he was satisfied that there were no issues, he began to go through the wiring systems from the windows on his PADD.

 

It didn’t take him too long to discover the wires that were responsible for polarising the windows and he found the timing command integrated into the controls. Most of the first half of his shift was spent messaging back and forth with Scotty to find a viable way of polarising the window in Bones’ room indefinitely and soon, they managed to come up with a solution. If they rerouted some of the wiring couplings in Bones’ window specifically, it would allow every other window to be changed whenever they wanted, and Bones’ window would constantly stay opaque. It was a long-term solution that should work.

 

After the shift, Jim sent a message to Bones to say that he would meet him in a few hours and went to help Scotty with fixing the issue. Scotty met him outside Bones’ quarters and Jim let them in, with merely a raised eyebrow from Scotty.

 

From previous conversations, Jim knew that Scotty was a good laugh and a great person to talk to, but he hadn’t quite realised that the Scotsman could keep up a steady stream of conversation, despite focussing on wiring and the tiniest components of the controls. Actually, this reminded Jim of when Bones had been handed a really finnicky knot to undo from Gaila, when she got a huge bunch of ribbons and ropes mixed up and had assumed that with steady and controlled hands, Bones would be the best for the job. Actually, she was right, because as Bones, undid the knots carefully, he managed to keep up a steady stream of conversation as well. It seemed to only take him a few minutes to undo all the knots that would have taken Jim hours. In fact, Jim was sure that if he had tried, he would have ended up making more of a mess and more knots than he untangled. When Jim had mentioned that, Bones had just smirked and said that he just needed practice with being delicate.

 

An errant thought popped into Jim’s head that Bones and Scotty would get along brilliantly, and he was sure that he needed to facilitate the two men to get together and chat.

 

Between Jim and Scotty, it didn’t take long to sort out the windows.

 

Once they had finished, Scotty claimed that he needed to hunt the ship for sandwiches and Jim wondered for a moment what the hell the man was talking about. Before he was able to ask him, he had gone. Instead, for the second time today, Jim searched for Bones’ location on the ship. “Dr Leonard McCoy is in Sickbay,” the ship replied coolly when he asked.

 

Jim sighed, of course Bones wouldn’t have left Sickbay-especially not if there was a concept of having to see space in his own rooms. Undoubtedly, the man would have cooped himself up in his office, leaning over his desk as he filled in his paperwork, therefore knotting the muscles in his back terribly. Despite being a doctor, Bones doesn’t always take the best of care for himself-maybe that’s why Jim steps in so often.

 

When he got there, the scenario that he had imagined was almost perfect. Bones was hunched over his desk, his shoulders and back taught, as the muscles began to tighten uncomfortably. Two coffees were on the table, both steaming slightly, one black, one white.

 

When the door opened, Bones signed off of a sheet of paperwork and looked up at Jim. He gave a small smile and watched as Jim took the seat across from him. “Please tell me that coffee’s mine,” he asks, eagerly, gesturing towards the white coffee.

 

“Who else is it gonna be for?” Bones asks back, gruffly, scowling slightly as he settles back into his seat and looks at Jim. That look almost makes Jim want to squirm under the gaze. He always wants to know what Bones sees when it looks like he’s looking straight through him. His gaze becomes more relaxed “how was your shift?”

 

“It was good,” Jim replied easily, as he reached for the coffee on the table. It was still too hot to drink, but he could still take in the smell that relaxed him so easily.

 

“Do you want to get something to eat?” Jim asked Bones as he watched the man, in slight awe as he drank back the hot coffee in his mug. “How do you do that?”

 

“How do I do what?” Bones asks with a frown as he puts his now empty coffee cup on the table.

 

“Drink down hot coffee, as if it’s… you know…not hot,” Jim replied. _Great, now he’s gonna think I’m even more of an idiot,_  he thinks to himself.

 

“Eloquent Jim,” Bones replied dryly. He sighs almost thoughtfully, “it’s a skill I gained from doing fast paced night shifts. There’s not enough time to let it cool down, but you need the caffeine,” Bones explains calmly, as if talking to a child.

 

Jim hums thoughtfully, as he inhales more coffee steam. _Understandable_ , he thinks to himself.

 

By the time that Jim drinks his coffee, Bones and Jim had compared their shifts and Bones looks like he’s ready for another coffee, Jim considers for a moment. He wasn’t quite sure why he had come to that conclusion, maybe it’s just that he knows Bones very well now.

 

After heading to the mess to get some dinner, whereby Jim kept up a steady stream of conversation while Bones kept adding in dry comments occasionally, as he ate his sweet and sour chicken and rice. Unlike with coffee, Jim could scoff down food and leave his plate empty quicker than average and so, by the time that Jim had finished his pasta and meatballs, Bones was only half-way through his own meal. This therefore means that Jim continues the steady stream of conversation as he waits for his best friend to finish his meal.

 

Once he’d finished, they decide that they both need to fill in more paperwork, as they’re still backlogged from when they had set off from Earth, as it turns out that setting sail came with a stupid amount of paperwork, especially as they’re doing paperwork from the average working day as well.

 

Jim anticipates that the mountain of paperwork should reduce by the end of the week. At least he hopes it will, as otherwise, Bones will have to treat him for insanity within weeks of him gaining command. He thinks for a moment and decides that if he were to notify Bones of that, his best friend would gladly notify him that he’s already insane.

 

As much as Bones is a grump, Jim knows that it’s just a face and really, Bones is just a big softy. The grumpiness is mainly a façade to hide his softness. When he had asked Bones if he really cared about his patients in the Academy and he had gained one of those signature _you’re-an-idiot_ glares, as he notified him that he wouldn’t have become a doctor if he didn’t care for his patients, it’s just that the patients who are reckless for their lives need a bit of common sense to be drilled into their brains.

 

Jim led the way into the turbolift and onto the deck that housed their quarters. Bones followed him without question until they got to Bones’ quarters. There the man hesitated, his foot seemingly ready to move, but stuck to the floor. The PADD that he was holding swung down to his side and his shoulders dropped in defeat, as his back tensed in fear.

 

Jim typed his command override into the control panel on the side of the door and the doors slid open to let them in. When the room was revealed, Bones’ shoulders slumped in relief, as if a huge weight had been removed from his shoulders.

 

In the main lounge area of the room, there was a two seated settee and a comfy looking armchair, next to a glass coffee table. They both sit down on the settee with a coffee each in front of them on the table, as they did their paperwork, with small conversation and comfortable silence between.

 

A few hours later and Jim was noticing that Bones was beginning to lag, moving with sluggish movements and he seemed to be having a battle with keeping his eyelids open. With a smile, Jim nudged Bones awake and directed him to the bedroom area. He grabbed a fresh pair of pyjamas and handed them to Bones, while pushing him gently towards the bathroom. Jim assumed that Bones was moving on habit as he came out a few moments later changed, although his uniform seemed to be still in the bathroom as Bones’ arms were clear.

 

He shuffled forward and fell onto his bed. Jim could understand how Bones was so tired though, as he had been fully woken up rudely by an unexpected panic attack.

 

After tugging the blanket out from beneath him and covering his best friend, he looked at him for a moment. Bones looked so comfortable and relaxed, so dissimilar to when he’s awake. Jim loved seeing him so relaxed. It’s in this moment that he would do anything for his best friend, just to make him happy and relaxed. Jim was eternally glad that Bones had accepted his request to be his Chief Medical Officer, as he realised that the USS Enterprise just wouldn’t be the same without his best friend, despite him having aviophobia.

 

Besides, you never know, maybe over the next few years, Jim can use this space to desensitise Bones to his phobia. He’s not an idiot, he knows that it won’t happen overnight, but that won’t stop him form trying. Also, Jim realises that even if he can’t help Bones, he’ll still try to make it easier to deal with.

 

With those thoughts on his mind, Jim went back to his own quarters, taking in the sight of the stars that relaxed him so much, that allowed him to go to sleep with a smile on his face.

 

This was where he belonged.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope everyone enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it :)


End file.
